Palm Sunday Reflection: “I will draw all people to myself” By: Father Peter
This is the week spring begins; the moon is full, and it is time again to celebrate our passing over with the Lord. On Palm Sunday, we bless palm branches and hear the account of Jesus’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem amid cries of “Hosanna.” Yet the excitement of the liturgy ends with the procession. Then a rather solemn tone takes hold. We hear the reading from the Suffering Servant of Isaiah. This year we hear the Passion according to St. Luke.
“Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.” “This day you will be with me in paradise.” “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”
We are already looking ahead to Good Friday: “When I am lifted up, I will draw all people to myself.” We look ahead to our celebration of the passion, death, and resurrection of the Lord. During this Holy Week, we celebrate what Christ has done for us. What we have become, who we have become in and through Christ. We enter again into the mystery of our redemption. We remember and we celebrate God’s action for us and our salvation.
Today Jesus passes through the crowd, a crowd disorderly and excited. He passes through them as through the entire world. In fact, the whole world is somehow represented there in that crowd. He passes through them as Messiah, as Savior. His very person draws them to himself, all of them representing a world awaiting the gift of Redemption.
The Lord passes through our midst today and this week. We are once again drawn to Him and taken up; with all our hopes, our doubts, our anxiety, our weakness, our sickness, our sin –all these are drawn to him. We who are weary hear the Word of Good News that will rouse us, the Word that will give us new life. If we die with Him, we will rise with Him. Hosanna to the anointed one. Hosanna in the highest.
Father Peter, OSB is a monk of Conception Abbey. He serves on seminary formation staff, director of the Abbey Guest Center, and is the pastor of a local parish and mission.
